Engel Nettevich - Retirement

Prof. Engel Nettevich

Prof. Engel Nettevich celebrated his 70th birthday on 4 February, 1998. He was born in Krasnoye, in the Smolensk region some 300 km southwest of Moscow. His childhood and adolescence were spent in this region, which was occupied by the Nazis during the World War II. His dream at the time was to become a military doctor. Although he passed the exams to the elite Military Academy in Leningrad, he failed to pass the physical condition test. Though disappointed, he opted to become an agronomist and passed the exams for Timiryazev Agricultural Academy in Moscow, one of the oldest and most respected agricultural educational institutions in the former Soviet Union.

After graduating from the Academy in 1952, he started work at the Shatilov Agricultural Experimental Station as a senior researcher. Initially, Engel Nettevich was involved in buckwheat breeding, aimed to create varieties with larger seeds. This objective was implemented by crossing tetraploid and diploid buckwheat genotypes. The resulting variety Shatilovskaya 5 was cultivated in central Russia for many years.

In 1957, Engel moved to Agricultural Research Institute of Central Non-Chernozem Zone of Russia situated in Nemchinovka, in the Moscow region. His entire career is associated with this institute, where he started as an assistant to Prof. Pisarev (a close associate of Nikolay Vavilov) and became the head of the Department of Spring Cereals Breeding. Since that time, Prof. Nettevich has created 21 varieties of spring cereals, including the spring wheats Moskovskaya 21 and 35, Rodina, Ljuba, Enita, Priokskaya, and Lada; the spring barleys Moskovskiy 121, 122, and 123, Risk, Bios, Vybor, and Elf; and the oats Hercules, Ruslan, Droug, Nemchinovskiy 2, Pisarevskiy, and Skakun. The State Award for Science and Technology of the USSR, and later Russia, was granted twice to Prof. Nettevich for the barley variety Moskovsliy 121 and the oat variety Skakun. During 1971-76, the annual area under cultivation by varieties bred by Prof. Nettevich was between 2-4 m ha.

Prof. Nettevich has authored 316 publications including nine books. His research provided the theoretical basis for the utilization of winter wheats for improving the yield potential of spring wheat varieties. He was one of the first breeders to successfully use biotechnology in breeding barley. His achievements in breeding and science were recognized by awarding him the Lukyanenko Medal, the highest honor for research on wheat in the USSR. Prof. Nettevich supervised 23 PhD students. For many years Prof. Nettevich served on the editorial board of a number of journals. He is a member of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and was member of its Bureau for Crop Science and Breeding. The autonomous republic of Tatarstan awarded Prof. Nettevich the title of 'Honorable Scientist of the Republic' taking into account his contribution to wheat production. Prof. Nettevich enjoys very high respect in the agricultural scientific community of the CIS, because of his broad knowledge, honesty, modesty, and exemplary devotion to wheat breeding.